Seattle residents -Where to ride SEA ?

I'll be living out of a hotel in Seattle for 2 months (May and June). I'm going carless for the duration. I'm taking the CX bike and looking for rides (road, path or mellow trail) easily accessible from the SEATAC area either starting there or using public transport to get to the ride start. I'll be pretty busy with work, so 3 hrs or 50 mile road max. 1-2 hr. after work ride would be ideal. Any suggestions?

suggestions? Yes, check out MapMyRide or bikely.com or one of the many other route mapping apps and look for rides in your area. Also go to the closest bike shop and ask there. I live in the north end and only go to Seatac to fly out so I can't help you with shops near by but I know they are there. Cascade bike.org has some nice rides starting in Renton which is not too far from Seatac. I did one last year. it was a training rode for Ramrod and was about 100 miles. tons of rides on the Daily Rides « Cascade Bicycle Club Blog site.

Originally Posted by JulieD

I'll be living out of a hotel in Seattle for 2 months (May and June). I'm going carless for the duration. I'm taking the CX bike and looking for rides (road, path or mellow trail) easily accessible from the SEATAC area either starting there or using public transport to get to the ride start. I'll be pretty busy with work, so 3 hrs or 50 mile road max. 1-2 hr. after work ride would be ideal. Any suggestions?

I'll be living out of a hotel in Seattle for 2 months (May and June). I'm going carless for the duration. I'm taking the CX bike and looking for rides (road, path or mellow trail) easily accessible from the SEATAC area either starting there or using public transport to get to the ride start. I'll be pretty busy with work, so 3 hrs or 50 mile road max. 1-2 hr. after work ride would be ideal. Any suggestions?

There's a lite rail station at SEATAC. You can take it downtown and pick up the Burke-Gilman trail and head out. Around SEATAC is a little sketchy, basically an industrial area with lots of traffic. You can work your way west via 200th and head towards the water and then north towards Alki Beach. For weekend rides, you can ride over to Fauntleroy and take the ferry to Southworth and check out the roads around Port Orchard on the Kitsap Peninsula. The Tacoma Wheelman's Peninsula Century is in June and it leaves from the Southworth Ferry terminal. The weather is a little unpredictable in May-June. A few years ago, May was hot followed by a June-uary with 40-50 degree temps with rain. Bring arm and knee warmers along with a standard yellow cycling jacket. Mornings are cool, even in the summer.

And since then, hopefully you've found something you like much better. Having a good time on your bike, that matters; sharing your disdain for the utilitarian MUTs that amuse the hamsters in Seattle, probably not so much.

MUT's

The Burke-Gilman is a decent place for a leisurely stroll or commute, but no place for a full-speed road cyclist.

There are plenty of pedestrians / strollers / dogs, not to mention tree roots, leaves, poor line of sight, blind intersections, etc...

There are a LOT of good road rides immediately in and around the Sound, especially if you are in the central / south metro part of it - near the airport.

THE gathering point for road rides is Leschi, along Lake Washington Boulevard. Standard shorter rides are the "south end" of Lake Washington, or, Mercer Island, both of which are scenic and in your time zone.

However, if you can extend your time or use a bus / get a ride a little farther out of town, all of the best riding really opens up to you. Southeast is some amazing stuff -- From Green Valley to Flaming Geyser and Enumclaw, past Auburn, is great. The Islands and Peninsulas are fabulous, serene, picturesque, etc.

Hopefully you can break out for some weekend trips for these.

If you get a hankering for any of this, we can start down a specific suggestion-path!

The Burke-Gilman is a decent place for a leisurely stroll or commute, but no place for a full-speed road cyclist.

There are plenty of pedestrians / strollers / dogs, not to mention tree roots, leaves, poor line of sight, blind intersections, etc...

The SRT that it connects to on the Eastside is, of course, in much better shape and the traffic is generally quite light except on summer weekends. I don't know what "full-speed" means to others but I'm a 61-yo retired lady, so for me, that's about 18 to 20+. Unless I'm going into a headwind, I'm generally able to maintain that as a steady pace for long stretches between Redmond and Woodinville and then between Woodinville and the golf course, where it turns into the BG, without concerns about safety.

That was my point when I responded. The OP sounds like an experienced rider, MUTs are good for getting to a starting point for road rides.

I bet you didn't wave when you used a MUT.

I couldn't. I was too busy bunny-hopping over the dog in Chain's picture.

JulieD, as a side note, I highly recommend loading your bike up on a ferry to the San Juans or Whidbey Island if you get a day to yourself. Great riding and a must-do while your here. There's a picture thread of the San Juans a few posts down, here in the PNW forum.

I agree with robdamanii and Arg, the BG and SRT trails are no place for a road cyclist.

But you don't actually have to take the lite-rail or other transportation to access some good riding in the Seatac area. A group of us ride out of West Seattle/Alki every Wednesday night and Saturday morning and often head south along the water and end up going past the airport. There are plenty of cycle-friendly routes through the area.

As far as bike shops, in Seatac you have Angle Lake Cyclery. Going West you have Bicycles West in Burien. Going East down into the valley you have another Bicycles West and Performance Bike.

A nice classic is the Burke-Gilman trail. It's very tame and depending on when you go, there might be a lot of people on the trail. Another trail you can look up is the Lake Washington Loop. That's about a 55 mile trail around Lake Washington which is very nice and scenic.

No matter what you're looking for you have a lot of great choices. Just to reiterate, come prepared for the weather. It WILL rain while you're here. It WILL be chilly while you're here. If I remember correctly, summer didn't really show up until mid-July last year. Who knows what it will be like this year. We've had 3 great and one not so bad weekends in a row, so we're going to pay for that sooner or later

Seatac is not really the normal stomping grounds for Seattle riders. From Seatac I think your best rides will be following Puget Sound either North or South, look for Marine View Drive although you will need a map because it is a disconnected road. It is going to have steep hills so bring low gears or strong legs.

Another area to explore would be Maple Valley and Green River Road/Black Diamond.

Take the South Lake Washington loop through Lake WA blvd, Mercer Island then the trail right along I-405. That will be a mix of trail, and arterial roads. Nice set of rolling hills in Mercer island too.

Take the South Lake Washington loop through Lake WA blvd, Mercer Island then the trail right along I-405. That will be a mix of trail, and arterial roads. Nice set of rolling hills in Mercer island too.

+1. Mercer Island has to be one of the world's best urban cycling routes. A half hour out of Bellevue/ Seattle and you have 15 miles of virtual country roads, no traffic, great pave, challenging enough to be hard if you gas it, easy enough to be a stroll if you cruise.

+1. Mercer Island has to be one of the world's best urban cycling routes. A half hour out of Bellevue/ Seattle and you have 15 miles of virtual country roads, no traffic, great pave, challenging enough to be hard if you gas it, easy enough to be a stroll if you cruise.

Not exactly. I've been almost hit more times on mercer than all my time commuting combined. We once got passed by a dump truck through the s-turns.

Great start of the montheh? Ya here yet? This weekends supposed to be good weather. I am going on a 50 mile road ride this Saturday starting at Log Boom park (9:00am Sat the 5th of May) at the North end of Lake Washington. this is about 20 miles north of you. Let me know if you are interested, we could meet somewhere, you could park, and we could put the bikes on my bike rack for the rest of the way to Logboom park. It's an easy 50 miles, no real hills, a few of what I could call light "inclines" ). So far there are at least three of us. Ages are 60 (me) my buddy (64 I think) and a couple from work ( 30ish?) email is: martinrjensen @ comcast. net > (take out the spaces) We do rides most every good week if I'm not traveling (I do that a lot). If I'm traveling there are usually still rides.

Originally Posted by JulieD

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to bring road and commuter wheelsets. I will probably get several weekend rides during my time in Seattle. I think some touring is in store.